Castor

By John C. Van Gieson and Mike Oliver of The Sentinel Staff, April 28, 1991

First House Appropriations Chairman Ron Saunders, D-Key West, clashed with aides to Education Commissioner Betty Castor over school construction spending.Then Saunders and Castor held a long meeting to discuss their problems. Later that night, Saunders ran into Castor's daughter, Kathy, at a Tallahassee bar.When Saunders told Castor the next day that he had seen her daughter, Castor replied, ''Yeah, she said you told her that you beat up on me.''Castor punched Saunders on the arm.''I also told her I would be a strong supporter if you ever run for the Senate,'' Saunders said.

Scott Sturgill, a Longwood business owner, is the latest Republican to announce he will challenge Democrat and incumbent Karen Castor Dentel for the state House District 30 seat in 2014. Sturgill, owner of Durable Safety Products, was elected in November to the Seminole County Soil & Water Conservation District. "I've owned a few different companies and I want to bring my experience as a business man to the state Legislature to fix what is wrong with our state," Sturgill said about why he filed to run for the legislative seat.

Dr. and Mrs. C. Eugene Pansler, Lakeland, announce the engagement of their daughter, Colleen Frances, to Stanley Asbury, Orlando, son of Dr. Abe S. Castor, Orlando, and Mrs. Martha H. Castor, Winter Park. The wedding is May 30. She graduated from Florida Southern College, Lakeland, and Regent University School of Law, Virginia Beach, Va. He graduated from Florida Southern College, Lakeland, and attends University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.

Democrats are protesting an aggressive new television ad from the Republican Party of Florida that suggests Maitland elementary-school teacher and state House candidate Karen Castor Dentel committed multiple crimes by campaigning on school time. In the 30-second TV spot, a grave narrator says Castor Dentel "used our children's class time — and our taxes — to schedule campaign press interviews, raise campaign cash, organize campaign events and to lobby for a new job as an influence peddler.

Rosalyn Wilson-Sutton, Severn, Md., and Eugene Wilson, Rosedale, Md., announce the engagement of their daughter, Donna Maria Wilson, Chestnut Hill, Mass., to Ellerton Castor, New York City, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eardley Castor, Orlando. The wedding is Aug. 20. She graduated from Franklin Senior High School, Reisterstown, Md., and attended University of Maryland, Baltimore, Md. He graduated from Bishop Moore High School, Orlando, and from Franklin Pierce College, New Hampshire.

State Sen. Betty Castor picked up the endorsement Tuesday of The Florida Student Association in her bid to become education commissioner and the first woman elected to the Florida Cabinet.FSA Executive Director John Sowinski said the lobby chose Castor because of her support for student issues in the Legislature.Castor, a Democrat from Tampa, announced she would seek the office last week.Other leading candidates include Rep. Larry Hawkins, D-Perrine, and former Florida State University President Stanley Marshall.

School Superintendent Jim Surratt said Thursday he has discussed a role in Education Commissioner Betty Castor's administration that would allow him to keep his position in Volusia County.When asked if he has been offered a permanent job in Tallahassee, Surratt answered that any offer for a permanent spot would have to come from Castor.Surratt confirmed that he has discussed an ''intergovernmental'' role that would allow him to work on special projects for the new commissioner yet maintain his job as superintendent.

TALLAHASSEE -- Despite hurricanes and other setbacks, Democrat Betty Castor has raised about $3.5 million in the three months that ended Sept. 30 -- putting her in strong shape for the final sprint of her hard-fought race for the U.S. Senate, campaign officials said Friday. Castor doesn't hope to match the fund-raising power of GOP candidate Mel Martinez -- a former White House official who has the president's stamp of approval -- but she should have plenty of cash for TV spots to put her over the top, said deputy campaign manager Larry Biddle.

By John C. Van Gieson and Mike Oliver of The Sentinel Staff, September 23, 1990

Gov. Bob Martinez and Education Commissioner Betty Castor are saying in recent re-election campaign advertisements that they are staunch supporters of Florida's public schools.But they used private schools to make that point.The ad in which Martinez is sitting in a classroom and tosses an apple in the air was filmed at North Florida Christian School in Tallahassee.Castor filmed a commercial segment involving a Project DARE (for Drug Abuse Resistance Education) class at Maclay School, an exclusive private school in Tallahassee.

When state Education Commissioner Betty Castor rejected a series of reading textbooks last year, some publishers questioned if it was because Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. had not made the cut.Castor quashed a committee's recommendation in December that Florida approve reading textbooks developed by four publishers. Orlando-based HBJ, the only Florida publisher on the list, did not make the final cut.The companies that did were Houghton Mifflin Co., Macmillan Publishing Co., Open Court Publishing Co. and Scott, Foresman & Co.Yet Syd McKenzie, the education department's general counsel, said Castor was forced to ignore the committee's recommendation because at least two members inadvertently violated the state's open meeting law.They spoke about the textbooks outside of the regular meeting of the nine-member committee.

TALLAHASSEE – One of the highest-profile Florida House races this year pits a two-term Republican with the advantages of incumbency against a Democrat school teacher with a prime political pedigree. For the newly drawn House District 30, Rep. Scott Plakon, a Longwood businessman, is running against Karen Castor Dentel, a teacher at Maitland 's Dommerich Elementary who comes from a prominent family of Democratic elected officials. Who are the candidates? Plakon, 53, is the CEO of publishing company The Claims Pages, and has served for four years in the House.

A Polk County Sheriff's Office employee was arrested on Tuesday, the agency said, after detectives found a bong and other marijuana paraphernalia in his home. The sheriff's Bureau of Special Investigations searched the Lakeland home of 56-year-old Richard William Castor after receiving a tip that he had marijuana and a bong. He gave consent for the search, deputies said, and inside detectives discovered a glass pipe, a metal pipe, a bong and a wooden box, all of which tested positive for pot. According to a sheriff's spokeswoman, Castor told detectives the items belonged to him, and admitted he'd smoked marijuana while employed by the Sheriff's Office.

Democrats should worry about a primary battle between Val Demings and Alan Grayson if both stay in the race for the District 8 congressional seat currently held by Republican Daniel Webster, who defeated Grayson in 2010. Because history often repeats itself, the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. The pertinent tragedy - for Democrats - was the ruinous primary fight between Betty Castor and Peter Deutsch in the 2004 U.S. senate race. It was a tragedy for their party because Deutsch's attacks on Castor left her vulnerable in the general election on the key issue of combating terrorism.

WASHINGTON -- The author of a plan to allow drilling as close as 25 miles off the coast of Florida said Wednesday that he has withdrawn it for now but plans to bring it up again soon. Florida lawmakers, this time led by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, have successfully fought drilling, saying it could harm Florida's environment and tourism industry. But U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., has parlayed angst over high gasoline and other fuel prices into support in Congress for finding more domestic energy.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- A troubled teenager accused of plotting a school attack built up a stash of weapons with the help of his mother, authorities said Friday. Michele Cossey, 46, was arrested Friday on charges of illegally buying her home-schooled son, Dillon, a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle with a laser scope. The parents were indulging the boy's interests because he was unhappy, not knowingly aiding a school assault, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said.

Betty Castor, 65, the former state education commissioner and University of South Florida president who lost a 2004 U.S. Senate bid to Mel Martinez, is returning to the Tampa university to lead the Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions.

Last year, Florida's public schools made room for 106,000 new students. That's like adding a new school district the size of Orange County's.Growth in enrollment isn't the only challenge for Commissioner of Education Betty Castor. Problems such as a persistently high dropout rate have produced demands for radical changes in how schools operate. At the same time, the state has about $500 million less to spend than legislators expected, which means fewer dollars for some special school programs.

TAMPA -- A union that represents 10,000 food, health-care workers and Walt Disney World employees said Wednesday it is endorsing Betty Castor for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Bob Graham. The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1625 unanimously backed Castor to be the Democrats' nominee and recommended that the state AFL-CIO do the same. The union cited Castor's work as a former University of South Florida president to develop the economy of the Interstate 4 corridor from Tampa to Orlando as a main reason behind its endorsement.

PORTO NACIONAL, Brazil -- For the better part of his 64 years, Sebastian Luis de Sousa has scratched a meager living in the paprika-red soil of central Brazil. So when offered a chance to grow castor beans to produce an alternative fuel called biodiesel, the rawboned father of nine reckoned he had nothing to lose. The $200 he earned this summer from his tiny harvest wasn't much. But rising demand for renewable fuels has de Sousa wanting to expand his 71/2-acre farm. "I want to buy more land," he said, rolling a prickly castor-bean seedpod in his calloused hand.

TALLAHASSEE -- Betty Castor, the 2004 Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, recently e-mailed supporters a "mid-session update" chiding the GOP-controlled Legislature for failing to spend more on teacher salaries or fund embryonic stem-cell research and warning people to keep tabs on the proposed constitutional amendment to permit private-school vouchers. Castor also urges readers to contact lawmakers in support of a plan backed by Republican Senate President Tom Lee and Democrats that would stop lawmakers from raising unlimited amounts of money through loosely regulated political committees.